


Humble Wishes

by Kuroeia (Empatheia)



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-07
Updated: 2008-06-07
Packaged: 2018-10-05 20:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10316819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empatheia/pseuds/Kuroeia
Summary: A reason to smile. A reason to be unafraid.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written on request.
> 
> **Prompter:** evergrnterrace on LJ  
>  **Prompt:** Haruhi gives Takashi a reason to smile. Takashi gives Haruhi a reason not to fear storms.

In retrospect, it should have surprised no one that despite several members of the Host Club being madly in love with her, Haruhi would choose to stay with one of the few who wasn't.

Haruhi was always doing things like that. Her logic was something none of them understood, mostly because it came from a place of stubborn self-preservation; something they had never had the need for, nor experienced for themselves. The rest of the Host Club were, of course, very wealthy. They were never in danger of going hungry. They would never lose out on opportunities for the simple reason that they didn't have enough money to pursue them. Haruhi knew the feeling that came with being in those position in a way none of them possibly could.

She could have had Tamaki with a single word if she'd so chosen. She hadn't, because she cared about him, and she could see that he would be far happier with Éclair, who shared his rarefied view of the world and loved him back besides.

She could have had Hikaru with only a smile, but she hadn't chosen him either because she had seen that taking Hikaru away would break Kaoru, and that Hikaru would not be happy without his twin, and had loved them both too much to be so cruel.

Kyouya had not loved her that way, and Honey was still too much a child to love  _ anyone _ that way. Even when he got there, eventually, it would not be Haruhi he turned to.

Morinozuka Takashi did not love her that way either, but of all of them, he asked the least of her.

He had never asked her to become anything she wasn't, even implicitly. He had never been surprised at the differences between her way of thought and his own. He had always been best at listening and understanding things which were far outside of his experience. He had only ever offered his support in the quietest, most unassuming of ways, but he had also never apologized for caring for her, understanding where the boundary lay between his feelings and her obligations.

For these reasons, all these reasons, Haruhi found sanctuary in him.

x

At Tamaki's wedding, it takes half the evening for anyone to realize that something has changed.

Takashi pours wine for her. She smiles and thanks him, and thoughtlessly fills his plate with all the foods he likes as though she's done it a hundred times. He smiles. They are intuitive, hardly ever need to speak, and that is why it takes everyone so long to notice that they sit a little too close together, seem a little too comfortable with each other, and call each other by first names without honorifics.

It is Kyouya who notices first, and Kaoru shortly after him. Both of them take it upon themselves to deftly deflect Tamaki and Hikaru's questions, to keep their attentions on the wedding rather than on what they might regret, given the chance.

The evening ends without incident, the wedding beautiful and overdone and completely Tamaki in every way. Éclair is stunning in her sleeveless pearled dress, hair down around her shoulders. Even so, Tamaki still nearly outshines her in his black tuxedo, a brillliant red rose tucked into his lapel and hair brushed to pale shining gold. They are a lovely couple, and they will be happy together. Everyone at the wedding can see that.

Haruhi is genuinely happy for him. She does not regret, because she loves him enough to let him go.

x

Haruhi gives Takashi a reason to smile. Takashi is why Haruhi is no longer afraid these days; of storms, or of much else.

To some people, they would seem an odd match, but what they have is all they have ever wished for.

**X**


End file.
